Chinese premier stresses scientific innovation, sustainable growth

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao speaks at the symposium to entrepreneurs attending the fourth Summer Davos forum, or the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010, in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Sept. 13, 2010. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

TIANJIN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday stressed the importance of scientific innovation in the process of shifting from "made in China" to "created in China".

Wen met with entrepreneurs and answered their questions on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010, or the Summer Davos, being held in north China's port city of Tianjin.

Wen said transforming the economic growth mode through developing Chinese creation and service was a key issue if the Chinese economy was to keep a balanced, coordinated and sustainable growth.

The premier said China would make great efforts to develop science and education, transform traditional industries through high-tech and give priority to the development of emerging industries such as energy saving, environmental protection, information and advanced manufacturing.

PEOPLE'S LIVELIHOOD

He said the country would seriously tackle the problem of social equality and justice through measures of tax reforms and income distribution.

People should clearly realize that China is still a developing nation, he said, stressing that it was fully necessary to increase investment in sectors of food and construction, which would help improve people's lives in future.

Wen also asked people to realize that Chinese people's livelihood had been improved step by step.

Statistics showed that Chinese people's wage income grew 11.2 percent from 2007 to 2009, two percentage points higher than the GDP growth of that period.

Wen noted that in China, labor costs are largely low, and they need a reasonable rise. But for most of the Chinese employees, the top priority is to find a job, while wage level is the second major concern.

Therefore, the rise in wage should be kept at a reasonable level, so as to maintain the competitiveness of our industries, Wen said.

"Besides, we should understand that the rise in wage should be in line with the advance of labor productivity," he said.